One Good Fact

 It's been a while since I told you about a cool source of things. So...here's a new one. 

Encyclopedia Britannica has a page here that they call 'One Good Fact', where they ask a daily question and give you the answers. I came across it recently because I've been working on starting a project I call 'Smile Cards', where I do a bit of artwork on one side of a 3x5 card and on the other side I write 'I hope this made you smile, but in case it didn't, maybe this will;' and a random fact. Some of the cards I've made have facts related to things I wrote about here. Others might lead to their own posts later. 

This particular page is pretty cool because some of the questions asked are...interesting. For examples...

What animal is often given beer as medicine?

Horses, apparently. It's unproven, but Vets apparently swear by it. 

What common food item was once legally required to be 16 ounces?

Bread, in Britain. 

When is it OK to throw cow dung at your neighbor?

I really wanted to know the answer to this one. Apparently, it's allowed in April in one village in Southern India, in celebration of a mythological marriage dispute ending. That's definitely going to come up again next April. 

Why do some postal workers in Vanuatu require scuba gear?

They apparently have an underwater post office that sells waterproof post cards. This might also come up again later. 

What rodent sometimes has red, orange, and purple fur?

Actually, I did write about this one. The Rainbow Squirrel, also known as the Malabar Giant Squirrel. 

Why did a California court rule that a bee is a fish?

This is for a legal loophole. Basically, insects aren't considered part of the whole 'animal' thing by law in California, but they needed to get some protections in there, so they made a case that a bee is just as much a 'fish' as a shrimp is, so they're all animals and therefore bees get protected. Yay? 

This might also get a post, just because it's hilarious. 

Why did the Texas state legislature once honor a serial killer?

This is going to be the last one, and I'm going to copy straight from their page because you need all of it. 

It also might get it's own post at some point. 

As an April Fools’ Day prank in 1971, Texas Representative Tom Moore submitted a bill that would honor Albert DeSalvo for his efforts in population control. Inattentive legislators unanimously passed the measure, evidently not realizing DeSalvo had been convicted four years earlier as the infamous “Boston Strangler.” 

Gotta love humans and the weird things we get up to. Please fight the urge to investigate serial killers to prank other though, because that's one of those pranks that makes everyone feel gross later, like when someone has to admit that the Nazis were right about something. (They hated people honking their horns, which I'll accept is valid. Everything else, no.)

I would suggest keeping this page around for some really fun little facts. I definitely will. I hope that you like it, and that you'll share if you find a really good one. Thanks for reading, I'll see you again soon.